4/29 – An appraisal even benefitting the Friends of the
Library, Antiques Roadshow appraiser John Jones and other guest appraisers
available to value up to 3 items per ticket holder, no jewelry. Tickets are $25 and available at the 2nd
floor reference desk. Tickets are for 30
minute increments 10am-noon and 2pm-4pm and times are nontransferable.

For more information about any of these programs, give us a call at 205-445-1121!

The Genre Reading Group met this week to discuss the
Victorian Age. April’s topic will be a
John Le Carré author study. Read/listen
to/watch any John Le Carré book/audiobook/movie and come tell us about it!

Over 150 years after her death, a widely-used scientific
computer program was named “Ada,” after Ada Lovelace, the only legitimate
daughter of the eighteenth century’s version of a rock star, Lord Byron. Why?

Because, after computer pioneers such as Alan Turing began to rediscover her,
it slowly became apparent that she had been a key but overlooked figure in the
invention of the computer.

In Ada Lovelace, James Essinger makes the case that the computer age could
have started two centuries ago if Lovelace’s contemporaries had recognized her
research and fully grasped its implications.

It’s a remarkable tale, starting with the outrageous behavior of her father,
which made Ada instantly famous upon birth. Ada would go on to overcome
numerous obstacles to obtain a level of education typically forbidden to women
of her day. She would eventually join forces with Charles Babbage, generally
credited with inventing the computer, although as Essinger makes clear, Babbage
couldn’t have done it without Lovelace. Indeed, Lovelace wrote what is today
considered the world’s first computer program—despite opposition that the
principles of science were “beyond the strength of a woman’s physical power of
application.”

Based on ten years of research and filled with fascinating characters and
observations of the period, not to mention numerous illustrations, Essinger
tells Ada’s fascinating story in unprecedented detail to absorbing and
inspiring effect.

Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend star in the lavish historical
drama, The Young Victoria. Resolved to establish her authority over those who
rule in her stead, a young and inexperienced Queen Victoria (Blunt) draws
strength from the love of Albert (Friend), the handsome prince who’s stolen her
heart. Based on the courtship and early reign of England’s longest-serving
monarch, The Young Victoria, is a majestic tale of romance, intrigue and power.

Nine recipes serve as entry points for detailing the history
of food production, cooking, and diet throughout Queen Victoria's reign in
England. More than that, however, Broomfield offers an introduction to the
world of everyday dining, food preparation, and nutrition during one of the most
interesting periods of English history. Food procurement, kitchen duties, and
dining conventions were almost always dictated by one's socioeconomic status
and one's gender, but questions still remain. Who was most likely to dine out?
Who was most likely to be in charge of the family flatware and fine china? Who
washed the dishes? Who could afford a fine piece of meat once a week, once a
month, or never? How much did one's profession dictate which meal times were
observed and when? All these questions and more are answered in this
illuminating history of food and cooking in Victorian England.

Myers's discovery of a
packet of letters in a rare books shop in London planted the seeds for this
fascinating biography, which reconstructs the remarkable life of Sarah Forbes
Bonetta. In 1850, orphaned and held as a captive by the Dahomans in West
Africa, an Egbado princess faces imminent death as part of a Dahomian
sacrificial rite. When Frederick E. Forbes, captain of the British ship Bonetta
and a strong opponent to the slave trade, begs that she be spared, Dahomian
King Gezo offers her as a gift to Queen Victoria. Under Forbes's protection,
the princess is baptized Sarah Forbes Bonetta and escorted to England; Forbes
presents her to the queen, who takes an avid interest in her and provides for
her education and upbringing. From the princess's life in an England far from
her native shores, filled with frequent visits to the queen and royal family,
to her education as a young woman of privilege at a missionary school in
Freetown, Sierra Leone, to her eventual arranged marriage and early death from
consumption, Myers portrays a young woman who never truly belongs. Despite her
celebrity, education and proximity to royalty, Sarah remains subject to the
prescribed roles for women in her day and to the queen's will--even concerning
her marriage--because she possesses no independent financial means; thus the
title takes on a somber double entendre. Myers sets Sarah's story within the context
of daily life and culture in England, Britain's attitudes toward Africa and
slavery and the growing unrest across the Atlantic that would result in the
Civil War. Period etchings and photographs, many from the author's own
collection, contribute to this moving and very human portrait of a princess.
Ages 9-12.

A portrait in her own words of the female Lawrence of
Arabia, the subject of the major motion picture Queen of the Desert, starring
Nicole Kidman, James Franco, Damian Lewis, and Robert Pattinson and directed by
Werner Herzog, and of the documentary Letters from Baghdad, voiced by
Tilda Swinton

Gertrude Bell was leaning in 100 years before Sheryl Sandberg. One of the great
woman adventurers of the twentieth century, she turned her back on Victorian
society to study at Oxford and travel the world, and became the chief architect
of British policy in the Middle East after World War I. Mountaineer,
archaeologist, Arabist, writer, poet, linguist, and spy, she dedicated her life
to championing the Arab cause and was instrumental in drawing the borders that
define today’s Middle East.

As she wrote in one of her letters, “It’s a bore being a woman when you are in
Arabia.” Forthright and spirited, opinionated and playful, and deeply
instructive about the Arab world, this volume brings together Bell’s letters,
military dispatches, diary entries, and travel writings to offer an intimate
look at a woman who shaped nations.

Short and oddly built, with a head too big for his body,
extremely nearsighted, unable to stay still, dressed in colorful clothes,
Wilkie Collins looked distinctly strange. But he was nonetheless a charmer,
befriended by the great, loved by children, irresistibly attractive to
women—and avidly read by generations of readers. Peter Ackroyd follows his
hero, "the sweetest-tempered of all the Victorian novelists,"
from Collins' childhood as the son of a well-known artist to his
struggling beginnings as a writer, his years of fame, and his lifelong friendship
with that other great London chronicler, Charles Dickens. In addition to his
enduring masterpieces, The Moonstone—often called the first true detective
novel—and the sensational The Woman in White, he produced an intriguing
array of lesser known works. Told with Ackroyd's inimitable verve, this is a
ravishingly entertaining life of a great storyteller, full of surprises, rich
in humor and sympathetic understanding.

The Woman in White famously opens with Walter
Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing
master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter is drawn into the sinister
intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his "charming" friend Count
Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons and poison.

Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of
English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the
first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror
with psychological realism.

The Duchess of York (Prince Andrew's wife, ``Fergie'')
writes about England's 19th-century rulers not as historical figures but as a
loving couple and caring parents. Aided by Stoney, a professional researcher,
the author gleaned quotes from journals kept by Victoria during her long reign
(1837-1901). Such excerpts strengthen this account of how the queen and her
beloved consort created a vibrant family life for their nine children despite
the pressures of their public roles. As in other vital areas, Albert took the
lead here, finding Osborne House on the Isle of Wight which became the family
home. There the royals spent as much time as possible, away from the strains of
court, enjoying close companionship in the bracing bucolic air. This virtually
ideal life was cut short in 1861 by Albert's death at age 41. Although
devastated by her loss, Victoria continued to rule until her death 40 years
later. This well-written book, telling us much more than has heretofore been
known about Prince Albert and his many accomplishments, will have great appeal
to a wide audience.

The Victorians were, were relatively at ease with death and
there is much in this book to interest social historians, those interested in
historical costume and transport enthusiasts, as there is a section on the
development of the horse-drawn hearse.

The Emmet O'Neal Library, in the heart of Mountain Brook, Alabama, is one of our community's gems. In today's fast-paced world, we offer an amazing variety of resources and programs for people of all ages. In our award-winning library, you can enjoy the newest books, study an art collection online, read of ancient civilizations, learn a new language, research the latest business trends, or travel to distant worlds of the imagination.